Shareware CD-ROMs

One of the most historically important artifacts to come from the home computer telecommunications revolution was shareware CDs, compact discs put out by companies containing hundreds of megabytes of shareware. Initially containing less than the full capacity of the discs (600mb, later 700mb) these items eventually began brimming with any sort of computer data that could be packaged and sold. As material "ran out", that is, as sellers of these CDs found they were unable to easily find shareware programs and files, the hunt began to track down every last file and item that could make the quarterly or monthly quota. As a result, many otherwise-lost pieces of computer history were gathered up in the trawling nets of these individuals and companies and were preserved for future generations.
Some computer bulletin board services would attach banks of CD-ROM drives to their machines to allow users to access the discs, allowing the system operators (SysOps) to claim the BBS had thousands of files available. For this market, CD makers would declare their CDs "BBS Ready", meaning an easily-readable directory of file descriptions was located on the CDs to be read by the BBS software.

While many of the CDs contain shareware programs, a number branched into music, graphics, animations and movies. Additionally, the advent of an internet open to the general public heralded massive collected sets of files which CD makers happily mirrored and made available to the BBS market. Eventually, as operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD became more widely available, CDs were perfect distribution mechanisms for the very large libraries and file collections associated with them.

A number of the initial CD images for this collection came courtesy of the CD BBS of Twin Falls, Idaho, operated by Mark Fugitt (sysop) and Mike Laybourn (remote sysop). The system used a Harris 286 CPU operating at 20MHZ, two 65 Megabit Seagate RLL hard drives and a Dennon CD player that used a "cart" to hold the CD. The BBS was started using RBBS software, a single phone line with 2400 baud modem and a shareware CD.

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Get ready for action-packed fun with this "best ever" collection of 50 full featured games. With hundreds of levels, incredible, graphics and amazing sounds, Galaxy of Games promises to provide hours of non-stop excitement! This all new Galaxy of Games contains an award-winning assemblage of all-time favorite games including Blast Thru, MahJongg Master, Galactic Patrol and Solitaire. Choose from many different categories such as: Arcade Puzzle Board Strategy Cards Word System... Topic: video game demos

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This has more than 1,000 additional game levels, and instructional sample level (.wad) files discussed in the electronic book. There's a collection of the finest level editors, tools, and utilities available, including special editions or registered versions of the main editors discussed in the electronic book. It contains the Tricks of the Doom Gurus ebook. Topics: video games, DOOM, first-person shooter

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D!ZONE was a series of CD-ROMs produced around 1995 by WizardWorks, Inc., containing batches of Doom add-ons created by fans, harvested from bulletin boards, Compuserve/AOL walled garden file stores, etc. D!ZONE Gold was the last release in the series. More information: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/D!ZONE And: http://redump.org/disc/4500/ Topics: doom, shareware

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Collection from the PC/Blue library of public domain and user-supported software, with individual .ZIP files for each official item. From the explanation: "The PC/Blue library of public domain and user supported software is sponsored by the New York Amateur Computer Club and the Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey. The library is distributed directly to over 100 computer clubs around the world." Topics: CD-BBS, Curtis Kemp, Mark Fugitt, Mike Laybourn, Mike Woltz

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"3D Game Alchemy for Doom, Doom II, Heretic, and Hexen" was the title for the second edition of the book "Tricks of the Doom Programming Gurus", both thick volumes on how to create your own levels and resources for the computer games Doom, Doom 2, Heretic and Hexen. The cover-mount CD was predominantly a collection of existing third-party resources for the games, created and distributed on BBS systems and collated for the book collection. Topics: shareware, doom, heretic, hexen

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At the 20th DEFCON hacking convention held in Las Vegas on July 2012, attendees were handed a DVD-ROM containing large amounts of support and bonus material. A few errors were present in the final versions, resulting in this updated and revised DVD-ROM, now released to the public. The contents of this ISO image can be browsed at this link. Contents include: Presentation documentation (slides, supporting documents) DEFCON Badge information and documentation Vintage Hacking Textfiles Videos and...

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This was a "shovelware" collection of free, community-created Doom add-on resources compiled from various web sources (BBS, AOL/Compuserve walled gardens etc.) and sold by "SoftKey". More information: http://redump.org/disc/21231/ Topics: doom, shareware

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Second of the Galaxy of Games titles, this value-minded collection from eGames features 50 different games and is designed to offer something for everyone. Included are slightly abbreviated "Special Edition" versions of Crazy Drake, Speedy Eggbert, Nebula Fighter, and more. Games are organized into several broad categories like "arcade," "card," "puzzle," and "strategy." Perhaps inspired by the popularity of Nintendo's Pokémon games, the...favoritefavoritefavorite ( 4 reviews ) Topics: Software, Shareware, Compilation, Egames, Eggbert

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Maximum Doom is a collection of community-made levels included on the "Master Levels for Doom II" CD released by Id Software in 1995. The collection was Id Software's answer to the various Doom level collection CDs that had begun to circulate around the time. The CD contained 21 levels selected and exclusively licensed by Id (the Master Levels) and a larger collection of 1830 other levels of varying quality (Maximum Doom). The complete contents of the CD are not included here: the...

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Spider-Man was a 2002 video game released by Activision, based on the movie of the same name. This disc contains a special demo of the Spider-Man game, along with promotional material for the movie. In April 2002, Kellogg's offered this CD-ROM for free in exchange for some UPCs of their cereals and 2 proof-of-purchases from gallon milk jugs, as part of a campaign with "America's Dairy Farmers and Milk Processors" (the creators of "Got Milk?".) There are some differences... Topics: Spider-Man, Activision, Kellogg's, demo, Spiderman, Kelloggs, Windows 95 CD-ROM, Windows 98 CD-ROM

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A MEGAMEDIA(TM) demo. Before we became a game company of over 60 people, the original six of us created a demo CD, called simply, The Monolith CD. This CD contained both PC software and CD audio tracks. Some of my fondest Monolith memories are preserved in this CD. -Brian Goble The most creative group of people of our time...favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite ( 1 reviews ) Topics: Monolith, Megamedia, Disc, Demo, Shareware, CD, MicroMan, Brian Goble, Windows 3.1

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This is a shareware CD with many Tools as a bonus. It contains Doom shareware v1. 2 plus about 20 WAD files + a number of level editors, sound editors and tips & tricks. Topics: video games, DOOM, first-person shooter

One of the most historically important artifacts to come from the home computer telecommunications revolution was shareware CDs, compact discs put out by companies containing hundreds of megabytes of shareware. Initially containing less than the full capacity of the discs (600mb, later 700mb) these items eventually began brimming with any sort of computer data that could be packaged and sold. As material "ran out", that is, as sellers of these CDs found they were unable to easily find shareware programs and files, the hunt began to track down every last file and item that could make the quarterly or monthly quota. As a result, many otherwise-lost pieces of computer history were gathered up in the trawling nets of these individuals and companies and were preserved for future generations.
Some computer bulletin board services would attach banks of CD-ROM drives to their machines to allow users to access the discs, allowing the system operators (SysOps) to claim the BBS had thousands of files available. For this market, CD makers would declare their CDs "BBS Ready", meaning an easily-readable directory of file descriptions was located on the CDs to be read by the BBS software.

While many of the CDs contain shareware programs, a number branched into music, graphics, animations and movies. Additionally, the advent of an internet open to the general public heralded massive collected sets of files which CD makers happily mirrored and made available to the BBS market. Eventually, as operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD became more widely available, CDs were perfect distribution mechanisms for the very large libraries and file collections associated with them.

A number of the initial CD images for this collection came courtesy of the CD BBS of Twin Falls, Idaho, operated by Mark Fugitt (sysop) and Mike Laybourn (remote sysop). The system used a Harris 286 CPU operating at 20MHZ, two 65 Megabit Seagate RLL hard drives and a Dennon CD player that used a "cart" to hold the CD. The BBS was started using RBBS software, a single phone line with 2400 baud modem and a shareware CD.